The present invention relates generally to an electronic filing system, and more particularly to an electronic filing system in which an image of a scanned document is stored in a given format, a cover page is automatically generated and attached to the stored image, and an image of the document with the front page is transmitted to an external station through a facsimile transmission procedure.
In an electronic filing system, image data that is read out by scanning a document by means of an image scanner is stored in such a large-capacity memory device as a magneto-optic disk unit in a given document format, and the stored image data can be used when it is necessary to retrieve the document. Paper has conventionally been used for document filing and storing work. However, in the electronic filing system, a magneto-optic disk unit can be used instead of paper. This electronic filing system using the magneto-optic disk unit has been put into practical use.
There is also an electronic filing system having a capability of facsimile transmission, for example, a Group-III facsimile transmission capability. In this electronic filing system, image data of a document stored in the magneto-optic disk unit can be transmitted to a designated external facsimile by carrying out a facsimile transmission procedure, image data which is received from an external terminal through facsimile transmission can be stored in the magneto-optic disk unit, and the stored data can be used as document data for retrieving the document. This electronic filing system which is capable of facsimile transmission has been put into practical use.
In the above described electronic filing system having a facsimile transmission capability, it is possible to reduce storage space required for filing document data, and it is possible to transmit the document data stored in the storage device to an external terminal through facsimile transmission. Thus, one can efficiently utilize the document data, and time and labor needed for transmitting the document data can be remarkably reduced by means of the above described electronic filing system.
The above described electronic filing system is usually shared by a plurality of users. Therefore, it is difficult to recognize a station to which an image of document data is transmitted if only the image of the text section of the original document is transmitted. Conventionally, when an image of document data is transmitted, it is necessary to generate a cover page which specifies the station to which the image is transmitted. The cover page is scanned by a scanner so as to generate an image of the cover page, and the generated image is attached to the top of the image of the document being transmitted, so that an image of the document including the cover page is transmitted to the station. Therefore, the above described electronic filing system has a problem, as it is necessary for users to make a cover page, scan the cover letter to read out an image thereof, and enter the image of the cover page in the system each time an image of a document is transmitted through facsimile transmission. Because of this problem, the above mentioned electronic filing system is rather inconvenient for the users thereof.